ROCKFORD, MI -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has given Wolverine World Wide until the end of January to wrap its hands around the scope of the toxic fluorochemical plume leaching through the groundwater from the company's long forgotten tannery sludge landfill on House Street NE in Belmont.

In a letter to Wolverine on Friday, Nov. 2, the DEQ set a Jan. 30, 2018 deadline for Wolverine to comprehensively model the House Street plume amid a long list of work deadlines associated with both the Belmont plume and the former Rockford tannery.

The DEQ wants "all existing data" from tannery ground sampling in downtown Rockford by Nov. 8 and a site model for both fluorochemicals and ammonia contamination that includes former building footprints and piping pathways by Nov. 27.

In late August, Wolverine began sampling the tannery site and Rogue River for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances collectively called PFAS, (also called PFCs), and the DEQ has been awaiting those delayed results with some frustration.

Backups at labs certified to test for PFAS has prompted the DEQ to ask the legislature for funds to retrofit a state lab to handle testing, said DEQ spokesperson Melanie Brown.

Other new DEQ deadlines for Wolverine include:

Nov. 9: A work plan and schedule for installing a monitoring well network around the House Street landfill, including on Michigan Department of Transportation property where old rusty barrels and leather hides were excavated in October.

The deadline also includes installation of monitoring wells in the "southeast expansion area," a 300-home testing zone extending south to Rogue River Drive, east to the Rogue River and west to Samrick Ave.

Nov. 27: A remedial investigation work plan to fully define the scope and size of the House Street plume impacts on groundwater, soil and surface water.

The DEQ also wants a work plan and schedule to "fully define the vertical and horizontal extent of impacts to groundwater, soils, surface water and sediments" at the Rockford tannery site in addition to the conceptual site model by Nov. 27.

Nov. 30: Find a lab approved by the U.S. Department of Defense or provide documentation about the performance specifications of the lab Wolverine selects for sample analysis.

Dec. 1: Installation of monitoring wells in the U.S. 131 right-of-way.

The DEQ also wants weekly progress reports on work accomplished, upcoming work scheduled, maps of sampling areas and data summaries.

The DEQ is overseeing contamination response efforts Wolverine is conducting on a voluntary basis because PFAS are not a regulated chemical and neither the DEQ nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have established cleanup standards.

The chemicals showing up in Plainfield Township private and municipal water supplies are tied to cancer, thyroid problems and other diseases.

"The department expects that Wolverine will want to meet the deadlines," said Brown.

The EPA does have a drinking water health advisory level for two PFAS compounds, PFOS and PFOA, of 70 parts-per-trillion (ppt) at which chronic exposure is considered unsafe. That number has functioned as a de facto baseline safety threshold, although there's some debate about the adequacy of its protection for the developing organs of unborn children.

The DEQ says 22 wells in Belmont have thus far tested above 70-ppt.

Wolverine says it has no issues with the deadlines.

"Wolverine has complied with every request for information from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as it works collaboratively to determine the extent of the PFAS in groundwater. It will continue to do so," the company said. "Wolverine continues to provide safe drinking water and whole-house water filters to those residents in the impact area who need them. Wolverine does not anticipate any issues with meeting the MDEQ's requested timelines."